Many legal practitioners continue to refer to certain local seats of the High Court of South Africa as a "Local Division". In recent matters, and during arguments, Judges have queried Counsel on reference to local seats of the High Court of South Africa as "Local Division" in court papers given that the practice no longer exists and should be done away with.
Section 21 of the SC Act ("SC Act") 10 of 2013 states that a Division of the High Court has jurisdiction over all persons residing or present within its area, as well as all causes arising and all offences triable within its area of jurisdiction and any other matters it may lawfully address. The SC Act does not refer to or describe a local seat as a "Local Division". Instead, section 1 of the SC Act provides that the definition of a "Division" means any division of the High Court.
Further, the practice of referring to or describing a local seat as a "Local Division" was considered in Murray NO v African Global Holdings where Wallis JA held that the SC Act abolished local divisions and constituted the High Court in its present nine divisions corresponding to nine provinces, with main seats in all of them and local seats in some.
Interestingly, in Gauteng Province, there are two seats of the High Court of South Africa, namely the main seat in Pretoria and the local seat in Johannesburg. Following the approach in Murray NO, Olivier AJ in Isibonelo Property Services (Pty) Ltd v Uchemek World Cargo Link Freight CC t/a The Fish and Chips Company confirmed that the Johannesburg seat is no longer known as a "Local Division". In other words, it is incorrect to refer to the Johannesburg seat as a "Local Division". This stems from both the abolishment of local divisions by the SC Act and from the regulations passed in the Government Gazette, namely GN 1266 in GG 39540 (21 December 2015) and GN 30 in GG 39601 (15 January 2016).
These regulations outlined that Johannesburg, as a local seat, "has concurrent jurisdiction with the main seat [Pretoria] until such time that the area of jurisdiction of the local seat is determined in terms of section 6(3)(c) of the Act". Thus, the current position in Gauteng Province is that the Johannesburg seat now has jurisdiction over matters that would otherwise be exclusively heard in Pretoria, the main seat. Olivier AJ explained in Isibonelo that the local seat in Johannesburg shares geographical jurisdiction over the entire Gauteng Province with the main seat in Pretoria. Therefore, the jurisdiction of the Johannesburg seat is no longer limited to certain areas in Gauteng.
The concurrent jurisdiction exercised by the local seat in Johannesburg and the main seat in Pretoria implies that the main seat cannot decline to hear a matter that falls within the jurisdiction of the Johannesburg seat, and vice versa. On this point, Govindjee J in Voko v Road Accident Fund held that it is now established that a High Court has no power to decline to hear a matter falling within its jurisdiction on the basis that another court has concurrent jurisdiction.
Apart from Gauteng, and in relation to other Provinces, Goosen J (as he then was) held in Nedbank Limited v Norris that the SC Act has done away with the erstwhile outdated distinction between a "provincial" and a "local" Division. Of course, prior to the SC Act (which established a single High Court of South Africa), local seats were separately constituted as separate High Courts, and with limited jurisdiction compared to the main seat of the particular division.
Wallis JA in Murray NO frowned upon referring to or describing local seats of different Provinces as a "Local Division". Wallis JA held that local seats are not separate courts, and it is no longer appropriate to refer to local seats as a "Local Division".
Notably, and irrespective of the abolishment of referring to local seats as a "Local Division", there is no blanket concurrent jurisdiction that exists between local and main seats unless the Minister specifically provides so in terms of section 6(3)(c) of the SC Act, as is the case in the Gauteng Province. Simply put, whereas local seats in other Provinces do not share concurrent jurisdiction with the main seats, in Gauteng, however, the Johannesburg seat shares concurrent jurisdiction with the main seat in Pretoria. This is on the basis that the jurisdiction of the Johannesburg seat is not limited only to certain areas in Gauteng but extends throughout the province.
In brief, as provided for in the SC Act and held in the judgments of Murray NO, Isibonelo and Nedbank, legal practitioners are encouraged to discontinue the outdated practice of referring to local seats of the High Court of South Africa as "Local Division".
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